Below is an excerpt from "Demand Grows for Vomitoxin Cleaning Services" by Brian Cross of the Western Producer. For the full article visit the Western Producer Online

With fusarium graminearum and its toxic vomitoxin sidekick deoxynivalenol (DON) stealing potentially hundreds of millions of dollars a year from Canadian farm revenues, the thought of paying toll processors to clean up commercial grain deliveries is gaining momentum.

Mitch Flaman, operations manager with Flaman Grain Cleaning and Handling, said a lot of growers mistakenly assume that a sample with little or no FDK should easily meet industry standards or contract specs for vomitoxin. However, removing FDK does not guarantee that vomitoxin levels are also being lowered. Flaman said it’s critically important to know what you have in your bin and what you’re trying to remove from a sample.

“Early in the season, a lot of guys were getting away with selling their grain based on visual parameters only,” said Flaman, who sells a variety of grain cleaners, including colour sorters, gravity tables and highly specialized machines that sort grain using near infrared transmittance.“ In other words, if you could clean up your grain visually, there were some elevators that were buying based on visual grades only,” he said. “But what we started to find out later was that some stuff that looked very good visually still had very high levels of vomitoxin. So toward the end of the year, it seemed like almost every elevator started to price grain based on vomitoxin.”

The task of buying and selling grain can become a bit murky when FDK and vomitoxin are involved. In part, that’s because FDK is recognized in Canada as a visual grading determinant, while vomitoxin is not. However, vomitoxin is often mentioned in delivery contracts as a quality or contract spec, meaning high levels can significantly affect the value of grain being sold, regardless of how good the delivery looks. In some cases, farmers who cleaned up their samples to remove FDK were surprised to learn that they were facing substantial price discounts because vomitoxin levels were still above spec, Flaman said. “Understanding the difference between visual FDK and internal kernel toxicity (DON) has kept the industry busy with this year’s epidemic.”

“In the last few weeks, I’ve had more interest, more inquiries from people that are interested in (cleaning grain), than I could possibly handle in an entire year,” said Jason Basset, a grain farmer from Bruno, Sask., who also runs a grain cleaning company called Peterson Grain Processing. Basset is currently waiting to take delivery of a BoMill TriQ, a Swedish built grain cleaner that uses near infrared transmittance to remove vomitoxin. Unlike colour sorters that use near infrared reflectance to assess the external surface of a seed, the TriQ uses light to penetrate the seed coat. This allows the machine to assess a seed’s internal chemical composition. The TriQ has the ability to analyze each seed individually and sort seeds based on vomitoxin levels. Basset plans to use his machine to remove vomitoxin from malting barley. Vomitoxin specs for malting barley are typically.5 to one p.p.m. In one barley sample that Basset had analyzed, the TriQ removed 18 percent of the most heavily infected kernels and reduced total vomitoxin levels from two p.p.m. or higher to .5 p.p.m. or lower. In that scenario, a 10,000 bushel bin of barley that would otherwise be rejected by maltsters and sold as feed could potentially be cleaned and sold as 8,200 bu. of malt.

Spectrum Grain Solutions, located in Bashaw, Alberta, has purchased a BoMill TriQ grain sorter that has been installed in Kenaston, Sk. The Swedish-made BoMill TriQ has the capabilities to sort grain based on the interior make-up of each kernel, rather than the exterior appearance. It uses NIT (Near Infrared Transmission) technology to analyze each kernel and thus can sort grain based on fusarium, protein, vitreousness, seed quality and falling number at a speed of 25,000 kernels per second.
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The newest technology being brought to the Canadian agriculture industry has benefits for everyone. BoMill, a Swedish company, offers a management solution to the fusarium problem that’s been a growing concern in Western Canada. The BoMill TriQ is a grain sorter that sorts wheat, durum, and barley by protein, vitreousness, and fusarium. Sheldon Ball, the sorter specialist at Flaman, says, “It’s the only product we’re aware of that sorts individual kernels by fusarium.” BoMill increases the accuracy of other processes by analyzing the chemical make-up of kernels, not just the colour, and it does it by individual kernel, instead of in a batch.

WHY BOTHER?FUSARIUM
Fusarium is a fungus that produces mycotoxins during the infection process. Mycotoxins are toxic and are not destroyed during processing such as milling, baking, malting, or ethanol production.* The BoMill TriQ grain quality sorter will sort the yields and improve the quality for a top selling dollar. More importantly, the sorted yield will be a safer product for final consumption.

VITREOUSNESS
The TriQ is also an excellent tool to clean grain for seed. Its patented technology (read about the NIT below) analyzes the ability a kernel has for germination, or its vitreousness. By setting a fraction to sort by vitreousness, you can get a yield that is 100% capable of germination. Talk about bumper crop potential!

HOW IT’S DONE – FEATURES OF THE BOMILL TRIQ
NIT Technology
NIT (Near Infrared Transmission) Technology is a patented sensory system that utilizes infrared light to test the chemical make up of a kernel. This new technology, found only in the BoMill IQ and TriQ products, allows kernels to be sorted according to their germination capabilities (vitreousness), fusarium, and protein content. This technology is capable of yielded a 100% vitreous output, which translates to guaranteed better yield if used for seed. It also means healthier product for consumption by people and animals.

Individual Kernel Analysis
Although other machines exist that focus on individual kernel sorting, such as color sorting, this is the first machine that sorts individual kernels by fusarium. Other methods will take a batch of grain and sort by weight, making heavier and lighter kernels separate to the top and bottom. This is a good method, however the individual kernel analysis yields a higher accuracy.

Wireless Monitoring
The graphical user interface makes it possible to control the sorting using any device with a browser, such as a PC, tablet, or smartphone. Due to its user-friendly design, it makes the training sessions intuitive and time efficient.

WHERE CAN YOU LEARN MORE?
Flaman Grain Cleaning is the licensed dealer in Canada for BoMill’s grain sorters. “With Flaman as our Distributor in Canada we will have a strong partner,” says Karin Wehlin, CEO BoMill AB. “Flaman’s long presence in the grain cleaning market and know-how as well as established service organization is important for our future”. You can contact one of Flaman’s staff members to get more information by email or by calling 1-888-435-2626. You can also visit the product page for the BoMill TriQ and IQ products.